Tuesday, February 09, 2010

I will be giving a talk at the Unity Temple in Kansas City, Missouri on March 4, 2010 at 7:30 pm. This is sponsored by the Kansas City Zen Center. There's more info on the 2010 Tour link over there to your left. Or, as always, just click on the words "2010 Tour link." See how easy I make things for ya!

Which brings up another point I ought to make. And that point is that as of the end of February I will no longer be a resident of Santa Monica, California. Nor of California at all.

It's a bit complicated, what I'm doing. See, with my tour schedule filling up as it is (see link above) it doesn't make much sense for me to live pretty much anywhere until the touring stops. Last year I stayed a California resident and paid rent on a place here I did not even live in for five months. This, I have decided, is the definition of "clinically insane." So I'm not doing that anymore.

When the dust settles somewhere around late June or even into July, I plan to live in or near Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This, I hope, will allow me to take advantage of gig offers I've had East of the Rockies which, up till now, have not worked out due to my living in So Cal. Until then, though, just call me "Homeless Brad-o," for I shall be without an abode.

California is the real asshole of the USA. It's a real shame because it is such a beautiful state but it is where all the shit comes out. Blame it on all the old prog hippie transplants. Brad, you are wise to get the fuck out.

Brad: If you don't have a house, where will you stay when you don't have a speaking gig? N.C is nice but if you live over there you won't be able to take advantage of West Coast speaking gigs. Why to relocate to Lebanon Kansas, the Geographic Center of the Contiguous United States?

In 1926, a group of African-American Wilmingtonians Giblem Masonic Hall. The public libraries were segregated until the 1960s. The first library cards were offered to African-Americans in 1960 and the two library budgets combined in 1963. Read more about it and view a video.

You're deciding to live in the Triangle just after I moved to Montreal? Shocking! Go for Chapel Hill or Carrboro, I couldn't really envision you living/staying in any other place in the Triangle. I lived in Raleigh from about 1998-2009 and it's not really anything more than a giant suburban tumor.

Shantideva asks us: "The burning grounds of the hells, the guards of the hell realm, who made them?"

"Nationalism is more dangerous than war." - -Shunryu Suzuki

You all try to be clever and twist words. If you understand then there is no good and evil. It is only in your brain. You must cook long enough to truly understand before you teach others. Just be mindful in whatever you do. If you be a bank robber person just be a mindful robber. If you be a child abuser, abuse with attention. That is all.

I have just completed your book, Hardcore Zen and I feel compelled (is that too strong a word) to pen something. I cannot recall where I was recommended to read your book - I seem to have read so many different personal development sites since the start of 2010 that I cannot now recall - but knowing very little about Buddhism I thought "go on give it whirl" and anyhow you seemed to like some of the bands that my parents used to moan about in the 70s and early 80s - well what did they expect: how can you compare John Denver to the Stranglers! I am not religious but I am super motivated about helping people to maximise their (inner) potential, even though at the moment I haven't found my niche outside of work as a sports lawyer. Books by Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill have always been a source of reference for me; but having read your book there was so much about Buddhism that seemed to resonate with my principles. The Great Heart of Wisdom Sutra needed several fly bys before I even understood (on my very simple level) 1% of it but what it has made me think is that there needs to be something at the heart of my philosophy other than some hollow following of one person's experience as if it were the only way - not quite god like but moving in that direction. I have decided to go check out the local Buddhist centre in Plymouth, England and I am hoping to continue to try and understand just a little bit more of some of the material that you touched upon. I have started some short meditation sessions but am struggling with it; it just seems quite boring at the moment and my mind seems to be going all over the shop. I will persevere though. Thanks again for the book and who knows we might meet up one day in the UK

If you be a bank robber person just be a mindful robber. If you be a child abuser, abuse with attention. That is all.

I hope this is satire. I can't imagine a more destructive philosophy. Mindfulness is a tool to an end, to see what we normally ignore. If everything has the same value (no value) there's no point to mindfulness.

sure, I saw it coming, wherever you are when sitting happens Brad, well...sitting happens, I am very happy for the folks who will have the opportunity to sit with you on a regular basis.

for those of us who have regularly sat with you...well, it just won't be the same...these things have a certain emotional flavor--the first time I was aware of this flavor was watching the Beatles leave the stage Shea Stadium ('67? '68?)and get into one or more of the 4 cars which drove across the field to take them away..happiness and sadness mixed together in a proportion, an exquisite blend. if it were a perfume I'd call it 'impermance' and the lettering of the name would appear as you held it and fade after you set the bottle down...

thank you for the obvious things I would thank you forthank you for things you are oblivious of, but which have benefitted me greatly

All you know began with books. whether you continued into other things, you didn't know squat until you read about it first.

We are doomed already, but that is tommorow and I'm not worried if I let the compassion of Buddha take over. Many students have fallen because they placed their trust in unworthy teachers.

Apple pie ethics idiom is a oneness of slowness and speed. “In ‘apple pie’ 2 ps are nice. They are speedy and bumpy, but also confined in a good way. ‘Order’...is a richer sound than ‘apple pie;’ [it] is slower but has a repeated sound, too. It is, in its way, mouthwatering.” The idiom “apple pie ethics,” my root guru said, “is a way of showing lush­ness can be strict and strictness can be lush.” Many are deceived by this lushness.

I pray to my root guru who embodies the wisdom and the blessings to give me the power to attain supreme wisdom.

I've still to awaken. Like when you come out of a desert from having stood there for some time with little water, food or shelter.

You'll be based in North Carolina? Cool, maybe your touring/speaking/teaching/whatever-it-is-you-do schedule might bend down to the Atlanta or Athens, Georgia area now and again. I find your writing a good counterpoint or thought starter to my regular sitting group. Good luck with the move.

The Buddhas say we might not know our own enlightenment, and it must be true - for your enlightenment screams from the screen.

Only a true arhant, a true teacher, a true guru, could speak with such wisdom, such insight, such certainty!

Thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to speak to all of us here who, in our delusion and pride, taint the Dharma with our own pitiful mindfarts. This is truly the Compassion of Great Wisdom. And the Wisdom of Great Compassion.

These are quintellogical galaxies and uh, alphatronic rocktafications and uh, humanoid spacifications and uh, some uh, quantralogical, chemicalogical war-crimes for the some uh tetrological cosmopolitans, uh rockification, space stations, an uh, flying saucers, uh, with other population on other planets across 12 galaxies, uh, they are top secret by the CIA behind closed doors in Washington uh, outdating the automobile society, outdating those international airlines.. uh, Building Seven.

Glad to see you have published a third book, Brad! HARDCORE ZEN kind of changed my life...kind of because I'm finally following through with the advice (well, most of it). The style's really influenced my political/musical/spiritual blogging that I'm getting back into nowadays. Stop by my page whenever you've got time and drop a line. Keep up the good work!

there once was a comment spammer named tingting who posted comments that appeared to be fables of some sort, unless you looked closely enough to realize that they were full of spammy links.

tingting apparently hoped that people would inadvertently click his|her spammy links while trying to make sense of the fable, or at least he|she didn't seem to understand that the rel="nofollow" attribute automatically attached to all of his|her spammy links by blogger (and most every other blogging platform in the world) would prevent any magic link juice from blogger to leak through to his|her spammy sites.